Chapter 11: Maybe It's Destiny

The hot wind blew hard this high up, though nowhere near hard enough to make climbing impossible. I had to admit though, we'd been climbing for a while now, and it was getting harder and harder to keep a good grip. Ma'dqaend sure didn't seem to have a problem though - he'd been slowing down for me every minute it seemed.

"Ma'dqaend!" I shouted, "This better be as great as you make it out to be!"

We spoke in our native tongue, though we did know just a few words in English - mostly swears. Nothing like not being able to say a word to make you want to say a word.

Up ahead, he shouted back, "Have some faith, brother, and trust me!"

He scrambled up the last few feet, sending dirt down my way, and pulled himself over the edge, before I saw him peer back over, his mandibles spreading in a smile.

"Let's go! You're nearly there!"

"I'm coming!"

I reached up slowly, grabbing a chunk of the wall and making sure it was stable. When it fell and nearly took me with it, I had my answer. I yelped and clinged to the wall as hard as I could, scared to the point of shaking.

"Come on, Ah'k! If you don't do this now, you'll always be afraid! Don't let yourself be held back!" He extended his arm, even though there was at least fifteen feet between the two of us. "I won't let you fall! Just don't give up!"

I let out a breath and gasped for another, rubbing my forehead on my arm before the sweat went into my eyes.

Danars never give up.

"Never!" I roared back, before digging my fingers into the hard rock and pulling myself up. Determination clouded my fear, and I ascended faster than I had the entire climb, until fear clouded determination when the loose rocks started shifting.

"Go, go!"

I scrambled up as fast as I could, my hands and feet scraping on everything to get purchase on anything. I could feel myself sinking faster than I could climb, and in a do or die decision, I jumped as hard as I could and grabbed his hand, my feet dangling from the slowly eroding wall of small rocks and gravel.

"Oh shit, pull me up. Pull me up!"

"I've got you!" He yelled, slowly pulling me up and over the lip. I tried grabbing it and hoisting myself up, until he got me mostly over the edge and we both flew to the ground. We were both gasping for air, my heart pounding so hard it hurt.

"Never… never again, Ma'd."

"I said I… I had you, didn't I?" He took a deep breath. "And you're lucky Mom ain't here, or she'd kill you for saying that."

"I thought I was going to die! And what, are you gonna tell her?"

"I'm not a snitch. So long as she doesn't know who got into Dad's gear, she won't know about this."

"Got into…" I sat up and looked him dead in the eyes. "What'd you do?" I said, not as an accusation, but out of curiosity.

He sat up and reached into a satchel on his side. "I procured these," He said, pulling three small, brown vials, each holding a thick blue sludge.

"What are those?" He stood up, offering his hand, which I took.

"Alright, so I found out that this is like acid, right?" He said, showing me the burns on his fingertips. "But, I did a bit of research on why anyone on a hunt would need these, and I happened to find out-"

He took a vial in his palm and squeezed it shut until the glass cracked,

"-that when exposed to water-"

He turned around and prepared to chuck the vial. I didn't understand until I turned around too, spotting a small reservoir behind us. The vial went flying, before landing in the water and sinking like a stone.

"-it is highly reactive."

And then the lake blew up.

Well, that's an understatement, but it was enough to knock us back down. The water shot up in a small geyser and had such strong waves that it fought the hole it was trapped in, and the cool spray of mist was a nice bonus, too.

I turned to him, seeing a big grin on his face as he held out two more. "Come on," He said, "I know you want to."

I giddily took a vial, the two of us getting back up and cracking them just enough to prevent the viscous fluid from seeping out, before tossing them simultaneously. The blast shook the ground, and I could already tell that we weren't going back the way we came with how unstable the area was.

But it was so worth it.

"What's the point of bringing this on a hunt if it only works well in water?" I said.

"It's not just for that, it's mostly for clean-up, I think."

We stood there, silently looking at the rocking water for a few moments, before he sat down on the ground suddenly. It was then that I realized why we went on this little expedition.

"You know," I started, sitting down as well, "I think you'd make a great scholar."

"Well, yeah," He said, "Of course you'd say that. You and Yayub are both able to kick my ass during training. What good am I if I'm destined to die on my first hunt?"

"Hypocrite. And so what if you're not good at fighting? Maybe you're more human than yautja, and maybe I'm more yautja than human. I'm just saying, I think your intelligence is better suited towards scholarly activities rather than the brutish fighting Yayub and I are probably destined for. Don't let Dad tell you different."

"Wow, so wise for the younger brother."

"Literally, seconds after you," I said, the two of us staring at the still rippling water. "I love you, Ma'd. But if you tell anyone I said that, I'll knock your teeth out."

He chuckled, shaking his head with a smile. "I love you, too."

XXXXX

We had to climb down a different way, having to go down the opposite side of the mountain and into the jungle. We wouldn't have to be long in there to get back on the right side, but what we were doing was incredibly dangerous, since there were who knows how many creatures that could kill us with the swipe of a claw. We didn't need to be in there long to die.

We knew to stay close, the dense brush and frequent trees providing ample ambush access. Every snapping of a stick or brush of a bush reminded us of the tales we had grown up hearing, about what was currently among us, probably stalking us.

I wonder why you two wandered in here, it was probably thinking, I've been craving you guys for a long while now - younger is more tender.

We walked terrified for minutes, before I felt something far worse, like terror amped up as much as can be experienced at once. I stopped dead in my tracks, and somehow I knew that the next step would be our last. Ah'k was ahead of me, and when he stopped too, I knew it wasn't just paranoia.

"Ma'd… stay behind me and grab that rock," He pointed, his hands slow but calm.

Any social ordering involving me being seconds older than him went out the window as I heeded his words, picking up the stone and sliding it into the hands behind his back. I was only marginally ashamed to say that I was glad he was in front of me.

He reared back to throw it, and I could see he was shifting to run just in case, before letting it fly. Nothing happened for a moment, and I thought that maybe we were safe.

But he remained unmoving, still staring off at the foliage and greenery, until he pointed off to the left and said the single most haunting word I think I had ever heard in my life up until that point.

"Run," He said, barely audible.

I saw his weight shift more to do the same, and we took off just as I felt the wind of something whipping past my head, barely missing us. I saw a flash of green, and I realized that we were staring at the creature the entire time.

My feet were fast, but Ah'k was faster, and I was quickly trying to keep up with the sound of him breaking past brush and branches, until that too was exhausted and I was following whatever physical evidence he left behind, which was little. So now, mere seconds after we started running, I was just going in the last direction I saw him, and it terrified me that I could no longer hear whatever was after us anymore.

"Ah'k, where are you!?" I screamed, sparing a momentary glance behind me before tripping over something. I stumbled over and rolled to a stop, my ankle hurting worse than ever before. I expected to be dead before I could even turn around, but was amazed and terrified to say that I wasn't. Instead, the creature that, even as it moved, blended in seamlessly with the green surroundings and leaves, neared closer and closer. It had a dark brown muzzle the color of the trees, it's body low to the ground as it prowled over slowly.

I crawled backwards quickly with a whimper, watching it match and surpass my speed with relentless ferocity, lunging forward to dig into my soon-to-be carcass.

My life should've ended right then and there, and it's a miracle things happened the way they did. Before the creature could land his strike, a large branch whipped through the air above me at lighting speed, crashing into its face and setting it off course by a large margin.

When it landed with annoyance and anger at the denial imposed upon it, I saw another shape sprint past my lying body, scooping up a large rock on the way before slamming it with all their might against the creature's temple.

It was Ah'k.

The creature yelped loudly, recoiling and very briefly snarling before getting hit again. And again. Ah'k was beating the beast to death, raising the stone over his head each time, only to hit the other's with more and more force. The fight was won after the second or third strike, but he wasn't finished until he was sure it was dead, leaving the creature to bleed - yes, that too was green - heavily from it's cracked skull.

Ah'k stood there for a moment, heaving and hunched over, prepared to hit it again if it so much as twitched. When it didn't, he refused to let the rock go still, instead getting close to the thing's maw when I realized what he was doing.

He pried his jammed shut mouth apart and looked carefully, eyeing his prize before carefully prying one tooth, then another, from it's jaws. He finally released his primitive weapon, walking over with his trophies and guiding us the rest of the way out.

It was only a few more feet away, though it was impossible to tell from inside the jungle. He had to help me limp out before we rested on some large rocks in the clearing, just outside the jungle and close to town. He was still heaving as he grabbed my hand, placing one of the teeth in my palm. It was stained with green at the base, but was otherwise a shiny, light yellow, impeccably clean of blood or other things likely to be caught in the mouth of a beast with such sharp teeth.

"What? Keep it, you killed it," I said. I was in wonder, impressed even. It came so natural to him, doing what he did.

"No, here's what's going to happen: you're hurt, and they'll figure we were out doing something we shouldn't've, which we were."

"What if-?"

"Just hear me out, Ma'd. We'll tell them the truth, tell them how we shook the mountain and braved the jungle, and when Dad asks about your ankle, you'll show him the tooth and tell him how you and I took on whatever it is we-"

"You," I corrected.

"-we," He said again, "killed. You do that, and maybe he'll leave you alone a bit."

I chuckled, appreciative of the notion, but doubtful I'd be believed, or that I could even lie convincingly enough. "He won't believe me, Ah'k, seriously-"

He stood up and grabbed me by my shirt, staring daggers into my eyes, and I wondered what I did to piss him off so much as to make me wish I were eaten just a few minutes ago.

"That's such bullshit and you know it, Ma'd. You said it yourself, don't let yourself be held back and don't, give, up. All you have to do is this- this one thing - and maybe then, just maybe, Dad'll see you can defend yourself and let you do what you want to do." He set me back down roughly, my ankle flaring up slightly, but I didn't dare make a noise.

Instead, I said, "Why?"

"Why what?" He practically snapped.

"Why are you doing this for me?"

The anger left in an instant, his entire demeanor in general having calmed down.

"Because," He said slowly, "You heard what I told you on the mountain. I meant it."

To think he could survive this weather, I thought, feeling the tooth around my neck and suppressing a shiver in the rain, It just seems impossible.

I jumped high and far, fast and silent from tree to tree, hoping, praying that the intel was right and that we hadn't been cheated. Yayub was elsewhere, a suggestion she made that we split up to cover more ground, and that we would meet back at the ship.

They gave up and forgot, but we never did.

It'd been so long, does he even remember us? Does he remember himself? There'd been rumors of Bad Bloods drugging their captives with amnestics - perhaps as a twisted form of mercy? - but surely they were just that. Surely they never…

I'll help you make them pay.

But I need to find him first. And if the screams and gunshots said anything, I was getting close.

I'm not leaving without you.

I could see a clearing ahead, and so I jumped ahead to a tree near the edge, gripping the trunk tightly and remaining somewhat hidden behind the leaves, since the cloak wouldn't work correctly in the pouring rain. There was a small building, two r'ka on top of it. A human came walking out, his guard up as he descended down to the ground and around towards a window. I could tell who it was the second he came out.

And you're not leaving here alive.

Before I was able to prepare an attack, Frank was tackled to the ground by someone flying through the nearby window. He had a ceremonial dagger in his hands, one that he repeatedly plunged into the man, spraying blood without care everywhere.

Well, there's one thing done.

I felt dread form in my stomach as he took it too far, getting too entrenched in his business that he failed to notice the r'ka preparing to strike from behind. He came around swinging when it finally grabbed him, but that dread turned to confusion when the two embraced.

…What?

He was even talking to it. And I had no choice but to believe what my eyes told me after my system confirmed no amount of toxins or hallucinogens that may produce… whatever this is.

This can't be right. None of this can be right.

At first, I figured the human may know where Ah'k is or, perhaps through blind luck, even be Ah'k. But this… I needed data, needed to observe and assess the situation. I couldn't risk making an appearance to the wrong person.

I just have to be patient, have to be…

I was knocked out of my thoughts by the distant sound of something heavy crashing to the ground. And another, louder one this time. It was getting closer.

…What the fuck is that?

I watched patiently for as long as I could. I saw the r'ka treat the human, watched him search Frank's body for what appeared to be a data drive, and watched them all prepare for what I realize now is a rather large battle.

Why are they not attacking the human? And what the hell are they preparing for?

He was even talking to them, having a full conversation with them, like he could understand what they were saying.

And when they all ran out of the woods towards them, followed by even more right behind them, I realized this was no battle, but a last stand. The queen tailing behind confirmed it - this was a suicide mission. But when I noticed how beaten and recently scarred she appeared, I couldn't help but figure that this wasn't their first run in with her.

When I saw nine others run to stand with the human and others, I tagged them all red with my mask, allowing me to not lose track of them in what I'm sure will be a hectic battle.

They're gonna need help - no way are they going to be able to take on this army.

I refused to dive in there without Yayub here yet, though if her tracker said anything, she was just now approaching my location.

"What's happening?" I heard her say, finally within range of the built-in comms equipment in our masks. "Why are there so many of them here?"

"Here," I said, uploading the tagged individuals to her HUD, "It's the red against everything else."

"Hardly a fair fight," She muttered. "Is that… is that a human you marked? Why is he wearing our equipment?"

"All I know is, some of the r'ka are helping him, or maybe it's the other way around, everything else makes no sense. And look, you see that by the building?"

"The body?"

"Yeah. He killed him."

"So? Humans kill each other all the time, though I wonder why he felt the need to take it so… far."

"It was Frank."

I heard a surprised click come over. "That was Frank? Wait, this is it? The intel was right?" I heard her gasp with realization. "Is that him, did we finally find him?"

"I'm not sure, but we need him either way. He picked up a data drive off Frank, and he might know something that can help us."

"This is insane. We're not ready for a fight with that many r'ka, and certainly not a queen, Ma'd."

"No, we're not, but I'm sure the same could be said for them."

They were moving towards a large vehicle, which meant that they were also moving closer to the queen.

I added, "But they need help, and if it's Ah'k, then we need to go in there, and we need to do it now."

"…Dammit."

"COME ON!" I yelled, chucking the chem bomb right at their frontlines. I briefly saw several of them flail and writhe in agony, before the ensuing horde went around them entirely, blocking them from view except for brief flashes.

Then everyone else tossed theirs, twelve more bottles soaring in the air from our dwindling survivor's hands.

None missed - how could you, the target was everywhere - and two actually went far enough to reach Kaia. She saw them coming and dodged, but with the swarming tide around her ankles, she knocked down and probably wounded many of her own. For a moment, I thought about how she was probably going to be the one helping us the most, since she'd probably end up stomping 'em on the way over here. But she started moving, started proving me wrong with how they knew just where she'd step, and I realized that it was about time to start moving ourselves.

I ran forward a few steps and slashed at one of the few faster than the rest of the group, watching him stumble and fall to my side, part of his organ exposed. Two more were right behind him, Xerxes knocking one over and stabbing him in the stomach with his tail. The other came in swinging towards me, his claws scraping my blocked gauntlets before I shoved him back and ran him through, a gurgle being his final act in this world as I turned away.

"Get in the truck!" I told him, drawing the glock and firing into the crowd as he clambered up inside. My trigger finger was flying, the entire magazine stripped of it's tiny controlled explosives in seconds. I made to climb in next, found myself being pulled in roughly, before quickly leaning back over to slam the door shut. I even locked it too, y'know, just in case.

"This is insane, Alex, this is absolutely crazy," He said. I sat the burning blade in the back, praying it wouldn't melt through the floor.

"You think I don't know that? This is fucking terrifying, X!" I started the truck. "I don't even know what I'll do when I hit her, or if I even can." I put it in drive. "We're going to the belly of the beast and I won't blame you if you'd rather get out and help the others but you've got to do it right now, yes or no?"

He was quick, no hesitation. "I'm with you, let's finish this."

I floored it.

As we plowed a path through, I said, "If we get stuck or fuck this up, we'll kick down the tailgate and go through the back."

"Just like I did earlier-"

My amazement at his inappropriately timed sex joke was interrupted by a boarder clinging to the hood.

"Shit!"

He was already on it, the blast ringing my ears as the pellets pierced the pane of glass, perfectly perforating and sending the stowaway flying. My ass unclenched but a little.

We were nearly there, and I feared that the engine or the tires would succumb to the burning blood soon. I slammed the pedal down as far as it would go, the two of us surging back in our seats before flying back forward at the sudden impact. My face smashed into the deploying airbag, and I sat there momentarily struggling to remember where I was and what I was doing. My face felt like it was burning as I saw something pierce the bag, looking over and seeing X do the same to his own.

Glass shattered on me, and a hand was trying to drag me out the window until I managed to finally find the sword behind me, just in time for the rest of me to fall out the truck.

At first, I immediately thought Jenson was back again, pushing poor bastards like me out of vehicles, again, until I realized that the entire freaking door just got torn off, which was kind of worse even. I brandished the sword and stuck it through the one that practically dragged me out, the glowing metal fleeing my fingers as it stayed with its victim, its momentary mourning cut off abruptly by my sudden stabbing and slashing of two more with the wrist blades. I wasn't about to stay and see if we hit Kaia.

I scrambled back into the truck and saw X shoving one off his door, my body telling me without thought to turn around a kick, which I did just in time for someone's head to be in the way. Xerxes grabbed my arm and was pulling me further into the back of the truck, letting go to fire at one crawling through a hole where the back window used to be. I drew the glock once again, forgetting I emptied it earlier only to see that it was merely jammed. I went to unjam, frantically trying to pull the slide back until something wrapped around my crouched leg.

I didn't get but half a second to react before being dragged back to the front of the truck.

Xerxes dropped the shotgun and grabbed my hand, my other leg desperately trying to push against the back of the front seat to keep me away. I saw now that what was around my leg was roping out of the windshield and going higher, glowing hot with charred bits littering it on the way up.

I realized who had me.

"Holy shit, cut it off!"

"I'm trying! Grab my waist!"

He crawled over me, and I got a fistfull of his hips as he started cutting, the two of us in the most intense sixty-nine we would hopefully ever be in. I looked up at the back door, remembered Cassandra was still in here, passed out inconspicuously to the side, and saw that they were still trying to get in.

"Dammit!"

I hooked my arm around his leg, aimed the glock with the other, forgot it was still jammed, slammed it on the floor - miraculously ridding it of the spent shell - and fired. I shot maybe three times before I was jerked even further to the front, Xerxes flying onto his back from when I was holding onto his leg. I dug into the side of the seat, another jerk tearing me away from that too. Something pierced my side deep as my legs went higher than the rest of me, and I cried out in agony as Xerxes managed to dive for my escaping hand. She was really trying now, he had to dig everything into the seats and flooring just to keep us both from going, even his tail wrapping around whatever support he could find.

"Fuck, this ain't working!" I looked at my side, then immediately back towards him, his green eyes worried. I looked back down, catching the quickly staining glass within me and the tether still stuck to me.

Fucking shit, I'm gonna die again.

"Dante, throw everything at Kaia!"

More were coming through the gaping hole where a door used to be.

If I die again, it might be for real this time.

"Goddamnit, won't you fucking die!?"

I fired everything I could, the glock not nearly as powerful as the six-shooter, and I found myself lacking ammo just as soon as I needed it. I threw the firearm as hard as I could at one trying to climb up, getting only a small amount of amusement out of him tumbling back down.

And then the world was on fire.

The ones coming from the back and sides were melting before my eyes, and I looked out towards Kaia to barely see her legs on fire and bleeding, but still unmoving and gripping me like an iron fist. I think I even saw an indent on the truck, and I assumed that we had managed to ram her.

So don't fucking die!

I grabbed the dagger and slashed as hard as I could, praying straight to God that I would not have another close encounter, not again, not today. The coil tightened, and I felt the tip of her tail digging into my thigh. She was jerking and tearing on my leg which was very quickly looking like it would just be ripped apart - I could feel the muscles straining and beginning to tear.

Something tore apart, the sudden change in force making Xerxes fall backwards and drag me with him.

Terror drove me to scramble to the back as fast as possible, my coiled leg numb and, hopefully, still there. I honestly don't know if it was, I just didn't want to be up front anymore, and neither did Xerxes.

Good thing we did, because it wasn't but a second later that the front absolutely screamed and twisted under Kaia's foot, the force of which made us fly and hit the roof, before she punted us across the battlefield. We spun, quite rapidly might I add, perhaps even flew, and I knew that piece of glass was probably deeper than it initially was. I think I was pinned against Xerxes, and I began to fear the possibility that I may puke in my mask. The world stopped, and, for a moment, I blacked out.

It couldn't have been more than a few seconds unaccounted for, because when I came to, Xerxes was just getting up and Kaia was still stomping over.

The front was mangled and crushed, just a wall of wreckage that once housed the controls. The back was fine, but I couldn't see what was on the other side.

I coughed violently and picked myself up, catching that, though I still had the tip of the tail buried in my leg, I still had my leg. It was as I arose that I realized we were on an incline, the rear end higher than the rest. I hastily found my dagger and sheathed it as Xerxes went up and struggled with the gate.

"Help me get this down, Alex!" He said. I got on my back beside him, the two of us kicking at the same time once, twice, and then a third, sending the gate and a bit of rubble flying and away from our exit. He all but shoved me out, quickly sliding Cassandra out who probably got knocked out again in the crash if her bleeding forehead said anything. The stomping neared and stopped, and with a grasp of hands, I tore him from the wreckage as it went sailing back across the yard, his body landing on mine as we fell on a bed. Kaia didn't bother to check or thought we were still in the truck, since that's what she followed, and we scrambled to get the body and leave the room.

I left the shotgun behind in the hurry, and so I had the human hoisted over my shoulder and led the way. We recognized the room we crashed in to be her's, and made for the living room, Alex hopping and leaning against the wall behind me.

It was in there that we found our remaining forces, the team of thirteen dropped to ten. Some had picked up the weapons formerly used against them, like the spears and those disc-things, tossing them out broken windows and managing to make this a holdable defense point while we kept Kaia busy. Thing is…

She isn't that busy anymore.

I was about to set the human down to catch our breaths, until I saw her stomping over, shaking the ground with each step, making it apparent we would likely be running again. No-one missed it, many sharp and stabby things flying her way. Someone must've brought the bottles in, the uncomfortable exploitation of our own weakness gone entirely as a few exploded around her, one managing to clip her side. It did nothing to deter or detract from her dauntless prowl coming closer, but it was still something to note.

All of the fires still raged, even the sword out there, which was hard to see since it was also in a sea of burning bodies. They really blasted that area for us.

Everybody knew by then, when she was maybe four of her large steps away, that maybe we should vacate, at the very least, the room, when something new blasted her. It wasn't ours, and it wasn't the same, the blast actually stumbling and stunning her. It sounded louder than a gunshot or any of the carnage we've committed here today, the fight stopping dead in its tracks all around as we followed her general gaze to where she got shot from.

Another one shot out from the trees, and I caught what I think was something green zipping across, slamming into her thick crown. She nearly fell back at this, surprise filling the room at the unexpected help. Alex fumbled with the controls on his wrist beside me, getting into another coughing fit this time, worse than earlier. He tipped his mask off and spit blood, and I set the human down beside the couch as he collapsed on it.

Right about then, the fight resumed, but this time, it was more against whatever was in the trees than against us.

"Alex-" I started, unwrapping his tag-along on his leg.

"I'm fine-"

"You are most certainly not fine, Alex. You're done, we can finish this."

"Fuck you, I said-"

"And I said you're not."

"I-"

I leaned in close and growled, baring my teeth.

"Shut up and think! You can barely stand and breathe, let alone run and fight. We'll be too busy looking out for you to look out for ourselves - stay here and we'll take care of it."

He sat up and grunted, fighting to keep from coughing as he said, "No, not you. This was my idea, you didn't want to. If I'm out, you're out - don't go fighting battles I promised to finish."

For a moment, I just shook my head and stayed quiet, but before I could vocalize any complaints towards his demands, he looked at his side and said, "Just… help me get this thing-"

We all snapped to the kitchen where the wounded lay, as the backdoor had crashed open loudly, the wooden table in front of it sliding away uselessly. Standing in the doorframe stood a tall figure as they shot inside, breaking the top off the table and nailing it to the base of the door, which started banging behind them. It was here that we got a good look, fear creeping up on all of us at the sight of the intruder.

It was a Yautja, a female one, if the chest plate said anything. Female or not, it didn't matter, she still struck the same amount of terror they normally did in us, many hissing and backing away, baring weapons and teeth. I could hear Alex begin drawing his gun, and I put a hand up to stop him, never looking away at the oddity.

She turned her back on us, which was curious, but even more so, after she had impaled the door and whatever was behind it twice with her spear - a rather fancy spear, might I add - before she turned back towards us and put her weapon away. The handle clicked closed, the spear turning into a dagger that now rested sheathed at her side, a simple message typically unspoken by not-so-simple people.

Peace.

Or a trap.

But why would she do that?

Stranger still, she looked almost afraid. A slight quiver, a taste in the air. She looked young, smaller than most females of the species and mostly undecorated in their scars, though she did have many trinkets and rings in her dreads.

"I'm Alex," he blurted out. Then quickly, "Ah'koedhn, I mean."

She visibly stilled, fear gone, replaced by something else. She walked straight towards us, many nearly attacking at the blatant advance on our wounded, on our temporary safety. But I stood calm, positive she was no harm, and sure I could take her if she was.

She stopped in front of him, reaching towards his face and taking off his mask. Blood matted his lips, his chin.

"You've kicked quite the nest, brother. You always did have the luck of the gods," She spoke, perfect English, though a tad robotic sounding behind the mask.

"…Yayub?"

"It's us, Ah'k. We found you."

I stood up to hug her or do some greeting that I probably can't remember yet, before finding that my legs were really fighting me. Fighting me so good, in fact, that they won within a second of starting, and Xerxes was catching me, laying me back on the sofa. It stopped hurting in my side - that's probably not good, is it?

She started digging through a pouch, procuring a large mechanical device - one that I momentarily wondered was what she used to barricade the door - and a vial of something blue. She looked over at my side, the glass still in there.

"Can they understand us?" She asked.

"Yeah, and I can understand them." She paused for a moment, then continued her examination.

"Ma'd and me could hardly believe a human was doing this, allied among r'ka, but to find that it's you? It doesn't feel real. Bite on this." She handed me a strip of leather, which I took inquisitively.

"Why?" I could feel her hand resting beside the wound. I already knew the answer.

"Do it," Xerxes said, his impatience growing. I put it in and got ready.

"Was that it, the two of you talking?" She said. I nodded in answer, finding mid-nod that apparently then was when they decided to tear the shard from me. I retract the earlier statement of no longer feeling anything there - agonizing waves washed over my weary body, and I genuinely feared they were pulling out part of my liver or something.

I looked up through blurred vision and found her handing the shard to Xerxes, telling him to get it into smaller shards, before handing me a canteen off her hip.

"Drink." I took it and chugged three times before realizing my assumption that this was water for a parched throat was instead alcohol for a painful procedure. It was sweet, and it burned the whole way down. I felt, for all intents and purposes, knocked flatter on my ass than when I drank at the party.

The one you got destroyed earlier, remember?

I drank twice more to forget and handed it back. She took the vial and poured it out, dipping the shards into it, and then reappearing back by my side.

"Hold him down," She told him, and I realized how little I was beginning to appreciate this cross species communication they had going on when he complied. His hands were on my feet, his tail around my wrists.

"Y'all are trying too hard to-"

I couldn't finish my sentence, the world igniting in the blast of a million supernovas, fire ants eating me alive through the gaping sore in my side, what I could almost swear was smoke rising from my side through my blurry and darkening eyes, my body absolutely-

I couldn't finish my thought, my brain providing mercy through sudden on-set paralysis and blindness-

I passed out.

My side burned something fierce when I came to, which couldn't've been but a few minutes. My head felt hazy still, and I sat up with a groan, feeling the chemically cauterized gash and, painfully, the razor like staples that I knew for sure Yayub had used to barricade the back door. Only three of them, but they felt nearly as deep as the wound did.

"You're getting soft, Ah'k. I still remember when your bone was sticking out of your arm and I had to chase you down to fix it."

"I thought it looked cool!" I laughed, quickly regretting the jostling it did, "You guys get tusks and talons, and I get fists and fractures."

"Didn't Ma'd puke?"

"Oh, he wailed at your feet, begging you not to make him chase me. He promised up and down not to go building jumping again if you took care of it instead."

Xerxes said, "I don't mean to come between your reunion here, but how are we getting out of here?"

"Yeah, speaking of which, where is he? You said he's with you, right?"

"He's out there drawing the attention away, we should start moving."

Not two seconds after saying this, before I could even question where exactly we were moving to, he suddenly came flying through the front door and rolled to a stop at our feet, the door's final hinge fighting to hang on for two seconds before wussing out. Outside, bodies littered the front yard, not many more left to the horde now - maybe around thirty to forty remaining after beginning at around… let's say, two-hundred.

We did that, just the few of us. We can end it.

Kaia appeared in the background, and I remembered why this would still be the absolute worst. She must've told them all to let her handle it as she strode over, all of them motionless, alert and on guard.

"Everyone, out the back!" I yelled, putting the mask back on. She was getting closer by the second, but it took longer tearing the barricade off than it did filtering everyone out the door, somebody carrying Cassandra with them. By the time we helped Ma'd back up and steadied himself, the room was nearly empty. It was when Xerxes and I were about to follow behind that I found my arm being grabbed, this time from Yayub. She was pulling me towards the room where the truck crashed into, rather than the group.

"Come on, this isn't your fight anymore," She said, "We're going back to the Prime." I fought her grip and pulled back desperately, my side lighting up some.

"Goddamnit, we need to at least make sure they get out okay-!"

Ma'd said, "They're animals, they'll be fine." I heard Xerxes growl at the statement, grabbing me and tugging me away with enough force to send me flying and landing on my back. I clenched my teeth and looked back up at them, X ready to defend me if they went any further.

"Fuck you! What the hell do you know about them?"

I would've kept arguing if the house didn't suddenly shake violently. Hands snaked up through the busted windows and lifted, cracking the wall and ceiling as new light came in through the new openings. Fire seemed to flicker off of her, sticking to the ceiling - almost like napalm - and moving among the walls and such around her burning appendages. For a moment, I thought for sure she was going to tear the roof off and start plucking us out by the head between her fingers, but instead, she dropped it back down.

The sudden impact caused the ceiling and, by extension, the roof to start falling inward. A large piece came between me and the remaining three others still in the house. I was in front of the kitchen bar, basically in the center of the house, while they were all about to kill each other in the kitchen and hallway.

Well, now they weren't. Now, they were about to find some way over the burning rubble of the roof between us, before I made their wills abandon them and walked them out the back. For a moment, I was impressed that I had managed to take all three of them at the same time, gladder still that more ceiling fell and blocked the door, keeping them out.

But then more roof started falling, more in the kitchen as well, and I feared I began to hear a hissing now - not of a r'ka, but of gas.

The house is on fire.

I scrambled up and ran down the hall, knowing any second my whole world would be blown away. I jumped over my collapsed door and slammed into my window, unable to remember where the latch was and just smashing it, getting my foot on the ledge when I heard a whoosh noise.

Through the haze of rain down the barren country street, two brown vans appeared, headlights piercing the night. They went around a soft bend and slowed, pulling into a dirt turned mud driveway. The tilted mailbox read, Danar.

Both vans were loaded to the brim with six people each - two up front, four in the back. Everyone was carrying a piece, knowing that these woods were dangerous, shadows dancing impossibly around brush and branches. They'd surely kill us than let us leave.

It was in the front van, that Roberto Carelli rode passenger, Devin Kessler - the one who briefed Alex before his departure - holding the wheel in nervous palms.

"Is it just his mom, or do we need to get anyone else?" Devin asked.

Roberto was in an entirely different plane of existence, his eyes fixed upon one of the only photos where his late son, Tony, appeared genuinely happy. It was a school dance, his now deceased best friend, Alex, standing beside him. He could still remember them coming home that night, faces of contusions and busted lips, but smiling ones. Someone, a jock he thinks, called Tony and Alex fags for showing up without dates.

They specifically told Roberto that they looked at each other for two seconds, then back at the jock, where they both beat the absolute shit out of him until five more of the poor guy's friends had to pry the two off. The jock wasn't able to play anymore afterwards, if that says something.

What ensued was a minor altercation, resulting in the permanent ban from attending any future events, which was worth it, they explained, because, and he quotes, "Why the hell would we want to hang out with a bunch of fake freakin' masked-up puppets?"

Ironically, this was before they started being more than friends, something Roberto learned early on. Although he would've never kept them apart - after all, the heart wants what the heart wants - he did have to admit his anxiety that they would face a lot more days like that than they deserved.

Doesn't matter now, he supposed. At least they're looking out for each other now.

It hurt the same in that gut wrenching agony the second time around. They were both blood in his eyes, Alex like an adopted son he had since what happened to poor Tony. But now he's dead, too, and past sins were beginning to rear their ugly little heads in his mind. So much pain caused, so much death, none of it requiring a good eye to see that it all led back to him.

He folded the photo and put it back in his wallet, saying, "I don't know, he used to say that she would occasionally bring company home, good or bad, so just be ready."

They had to get Cassandra out of the house, somewhere away from these infested woods. Before they swallowed her alive. He could still protect his kin, Roberto figured, at the very least. Obviously he would inform her of the tragedy at hand, but her safety was of top priority as of now.

"God damn us all," Devin said, "We can't bring this back, can we, Rob? Too many people dying, too many leaving… And now Alex? Goddamnit…"

"When we get back, we'll talk about what the plan is. But nobody'll stop you - or anybody else, for that matter - if you decide to leave. We're dead in the water here, have been for months, and now that Alex and Jackson are gone and the other groups are headed there one way or another, well… I see no reason in letting everyone else drown."

He knew the look Cassandra would give him when the news came out, it'd probably be the same exact mix of horror and grief Roberto saw in his own wife after Tony. Hopefully. Hopefully, she wasn't as bad or as heartless as he made her out to be.

The thunder seemed to get louder as they progressed, until they felt distant rumbling and heard inhuman, indecipherable screams. They weren't hearing thunder, they were hearing gunshots and explosions.

"Drive," Roberto snapped, everyone getting their piece ready as they swerved into the front yard, seeing the middle of the house explode. A giant one-twenty-one clutched the side of it, and it became apparent that this was a battle they were severely underprepared to handle.

"Over there," Devin pointed, all the way towards the right side of the house as something flew out a window. "What was that?"

I can't honestly say what happened next, because one moment, I was preparing to jump out the side of the house, and the next, I was laying face down in the grass, steam rising off my partially melted and burned clothes in the rain. My side was bleeding, torn back open again in a way that I really just did not want to see or know about. I could feel the blood run into the grass, and I wondered just how much I had lost today, or how much I had left.

I prayed that it would all be over now, that I would look up and Kaia would finally be roasting, that she would've been in the explosion and that it would finally end this night from hell.

I felt tired.

I felt exhausted.

Let it be over.

I didn't want to look up, because I didn't know if I could keep fighting anymore tonight. I kept my eyes on the grass, getting a knee under my body and carefully getting up. I stumbled as I stood, my shaky legs barely holding me as I finally braved reality and looked up.

She wasn't dead. Her carapace was steaming in the rain, and I could see my Phoenix Sword lodged in the chemical burn on her neck. It was still burning.

And she was walking straight towards me.

My knees gave out, and I collapsed on them, watching her draw nearer still. The mask felt confining, all of a sudden, and I wanted nothing more than to feel the rain on my face one more time. And so, with tentative hands, I took it off, setting it beside me and gasping towards the sky. I didn't realize how thirsty I felt until a few drops landed in my open mouth.

I could feel the footsteps shake the ground, getting closer and closer. Time seemed to slow, barely able to hear anything but the distant sound of rain and ensuing footfalls crashing to the ground like thunder. Or maybe it was just normal thunder - who gives a damn?

I still had my revolver, and my shoulder cannon that I had but five minutes ago figured out how to use properly, but what does it matter? She'll just eat me slower then, decide to twist her fingers around my guts like a fork in spaghetti, put my skull on her tongue like a fucking hood ornament.

I'm done.

I give up.

I began to feel relieved, that maybe, just maybe, I can get my sleep. My world can calm, and I can rest uninterrupted, undisturbed. It's surely called 'Rest in Peace' for a reason. Who gives a damn about anybody else, I'm dead, what can you do?

What can I do?

Fuck all.

In less vulgar terms, I felt that peace, or something close enough. With life, death - nothing, and everything. This is how it has to be, this is how it has always been.

I wish I could've helped you guys out more, but I did what I could.

I looked up and saw her but two large steps away, and I knew this was it. She would surprise me still, just to be sure, and I would probably get dragged by the feet into the air and absolutely slaughtered.

Her second to last step, and she would be upon me. Maybe she'd just stomp on my body, clean the caked blood and shit off on the trees or some rocks like nature's floor mat. Or her remaining tail would wrap around me like a boa constrictor and squeeze me hard enough to make my head fly off. But she would try and subvert expectations, wouldn't she? Otherwise, it's no surprise, I suppose. I could hear someone behind me, running up and ready to cut my head off, most likely, ready to-

"I WON'T LET YOU DIE AGAIN!"

I was blasted from the right by Xerxes - having ran around the side of the house - thrown hard from where I once was and sent rolling in the mud. It was when I finally stopped and laid on my back that I saw I was at the feet of, "Robert?"

"Alex?"

The surge of surprise was sullied when my eyes tore back to where I sat on my knees moments ago, seeing Xerxes dragged away by his legs, bound together with Kaia's tail as she dragged him into the air and whipped him onto the mangled mess that was the front of Frank's truck. I could see the jagged metal of the crushed hood and engine smoking, a particularly large piece through his shoulder bubbling apart.

Somebody has to die.

My blood started to run cold as she neared him, her movement quickening with excitement, with the rush of such power she held over Xerxes, myself, and the rest of us hapless, stupid, bastards. I could feel it radiating off of her in waves, and I wondered if I was the only one sensing it.

Maybe it's destiny.

Her side suddenly exploded, a piece of a dorsal tube or something flipping to the ground in a spray of blood. The shot was easily traced back to Ma'd and Yayub, along with the remaining survivors on the other side of the house, close to the room Xerxes and I crashed into earlier. She roared loud enough to shake the trees, losing any and all patience in relishing the kill and charging head first into the group.

"He told us you were dead, kid," Rob said, "I'm inclined to believe him still." In one of his hands, he gripped a rifle hanging on his side with a strap, like the ones in Vietnam movies. The other was to help me up, which I took, leaning on him in the struggle to stay conscious, my eye darting between the fight and where exactly he came from. I could see at the start of the driveway were two vans, men unloading and readying to fight this insane fight, some already shooting. A few hovered around us, watching for any strays coming our way among the yard of dark dead bodies. "Let's get you out of here."

"Rob, I need you…" Another coughing fit seized me, my ribs squeezing painfully as new blood left my lips. "Ugh, Jesus Christ, help them, help him, please," I begged, pointing at the group across the way. I wasn't sure if it was Rob or Jesus Christ himself I was asking, but either in this fine moment would do.

"What about the others?" He asked, and I bore my single eye into his, watching his soul behind those windows, feeling the anxiety radiating off of him. I wiped my lips of crimson, my lungs feeling constantly out of breath and making me pant like a dog.

"Kill them. Kill all of them."

His face rested undisturbed, a flicker of something - surprise? - showing on his face in the way his eyebrows seemed to so slightly elevate, a shift in the way his eyes looked into mine, before his seasoned poker face quickly returned. He nodded, yelling out the new orders for everyone not actively spraying lead.

The whole yard lit up with gunfire in seconds.

Any r'ka in the center were dead or heading there, torn apart by an endless hail of gunfire and lingering napalm.

"Watch the trees!" Rob yelled, and they were shooting up the forest next, killing r'ka and Bambi alike. "C'mon, we're leaving."

His face changed in a heartbeat, and he tackled me to the ground as a horrific noise of screaming metal filled the air, a small thumping felt in the earth as whatever it was came closer, stopping near its peak. I looked up on my back towards the noise, seeing the upside down world with the upside down car - which was really right-side up from my perspective - just a few feet away from Xerxes.

It was a failed attack, one that nearly hit him, and with the Yautja siblings missing from sight, I realized she was now after him.

Red seemed to flash across my vision for a few seconds, and I could feel the black tendrils of rage enveloping my mind. My eyes burned black with those pulsating black lines around my vision, a painful, energetic heat filling my head and spreading to the rest of me. Every muscle it infected seized in agony, overloaded with energy I needed to expel, too much built up that if I don't do something, anything, I will cook and burn and broil and BOOM! -I'll explode into a thousand pieces.

I rolled over and pushed myself up in an instant - my body invincible and mind focused entirely on killing the bitch, and killing her now. I saw the rifle beside Rob, and it was hanging at my side before he could even gather his bearings. The once confining mask laid in the mud a few feet away, and it was as I examined the extent of filth on it that I saw the last half dozen or so r'ka remaining in the yard. My breathing fastened in anticipation, with the thrill of the hunt surging my veins and the powerful realization that we are out of time hitting full force.

It's do or die.

I put the mask back on.

With vigor inexperienced in such a quantity before, I screamed over Rob's words as I charged into the crowd. My gauntlets punched holes in one as I shouldered through another like a true quarterback. The dagger was in my left hand, my right on the gun as I exhibited a flurry of motions practically indescribable. I kicked a r'ka down, drove one through at my side and shot another on my other side, and savagely finished the one on the ground off with the gauntlets. The others were already dying among the dead, the memories of their deaths hazy, but recognized to be vicious.

"I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!" I roared.

Kaia was practically at the truck now, and my speed doubled as I lost any form of gimp or weakness in this supercharge surging through me. I ran up the flipped car and jumped to the truck's roof, unloading my gun and shoulder cannon at a bloody gash on her leg - one I wondered if we had caused in our earlier attempt at ramming into her. She only stumbled, but that was all I needed. I took off with the remaining momentum, closing the end of the roof in three quick steps as I jumped towards her hunched frame, at the sword lodged in her neck.

I caught the flaming instrument and rode it like a pole vaulter to her back - the chemical burn yielding to my motions - where I landed on one of her remaining dorsal tubes.

No time was wasted as I started slashing and driving the sword in as deep as I could beneath the back of her neck, before she started thrashing side to side. I had to hang on desperately as I swung left, then right, then left again, my feet flying behind me as she desperately tried to shake me off. I could feel the metal coming loose, and just barely dug the dagger in as the sword flew free from her back and free from my hand to the ground. An explosion rocked the world below, and we finally stopped shaking as she fell to a knee. Another brought her to both her hands and her knees, and I desperately fought through flesh and blood to dig the dagger and gauntlets as deep into her back as I could.

I was standing between dorsal tubes when I heard movement from behind, and I swung around with the dagger into the neck of a r'ka, kicking him off the side as I saw more clamber up her appendages. Two came up her arms, and I drove the knife deep into the closest one's chest, back-handing the other with the gauntlets. The dagger stuck to it's previous victim as he tumbled off the edge, and I yelled as I drew my revolver, spinning around and firing into the growing crowd. I could only get three shots off - three bodies more - before I was grabbed and swung around by the rifle still at my side. I slammed into a tube and laid on my back, looking up at the crowd surrounding my vision.

Any thoughts of doom and despair were impossible under the energy I was subjected to, and as one swung his claws at my chest, I caught his arm and pulled myself up, driving the gauntlets on my other hand through his gut. I didn't even waste time pulling it out straight, tearing it out of his side and spinning it around through the group desperately grabbing and slicing my flesh to ribbons. I pulled back to drive my hand into the last one's gut, only for him to side step and catch it, throwing me onto my back again as he pounced, only to stiffen and go limp, before getting kicked off from behind.

Xerxes stood there, his shoulder mangled and bleeding, holding the lost burning sword and swinging through another set of r'ka running at him, going through them all like a hot knife through butter. He was over and helping me up in no time, handing me the revolver I didn't realize I lost. Xerxes and I nearly swung and shot another coming at us, before multiple pops! went off behind him, Rob and co. dropping any more coming near us as best as they could. I saw the remaining surviving r'ka with us using any and all remaining weapons on Kaia to keep her down. I looked at Xerxes and he looked at me, some suppressed morbid curiosity at the black veins bulging on exposed skin and keeping me from bleeding out as he extended the grip of the sword. I took the bottom, his hands just below mine as we reared back as high as we could go.

We drove the sword in with all of our strength until we nearly lost the handle, before we pulled it back out and repeated the process, driving the molten metal through flesh and organs that left bubbling and boiling patches of blood and glowing bits of napalm. A scream of deafening magnitudes flooded our minds, but we didn't relent - we couldn't. We slammed it in once more, finishing our assault where the lungs on a human would be when she started tipping over onto her side. Xerxes and I tore the weapon out as he dragged me up the growing hill of her body, the two of us jumping off the side and landing hard in the mud, my knees crashing to ground as he quickly helped me up by the arm.

When we turned around, we saw the withering mess that was Kaia. Her mouth gushed with blood, and it was apparent that when we delivered our blows, the sword went all the way through, her chest and stomach identical to swiss. She was shaking.

She was afraid.

"Please," She begged, "Please… you win."

Xerxes scoffed, the two of us imbued with confidence and opportunity for ruthless rage as we sauntered closer to her. I stepped over a body with a handle sticking out of the chest, tearing the dagger out in a fluid kneel and step.

"Speak up, Kaia," He said, twirling the sword to his side. "I didn't quite hear you."

"I'm sorry, please believe that I am. Everyone's dead, you've killed them all - what more is there to gain from killing me, please?"

"Don't ask questions about the value of your life," I spoke quietly, "It's lower than you could ever possibly understand."

"I'm begging you, as one survivor to another, please have mercy on me, please!"

We stood but mere feet away from her frame, her arms desperately clutching her leaks or trying to keep her innards from being outards.

"Like the mercy you showed us both?" He gave a sharp laugh mentally, a short and deep growl aloud. "Go to Hell."

"After everything you did, everything we did, that's what you expect from us?" I was examining the dagger for imperfections before looking back up at her, staring her down.

"At this point, anything we'd do would be too merciful for you."

"PLEASE-!"

Xerxes rammed the sword through her mouth as I jammed the dagger through and across her throat. She writhed as her weak hands drifted up, before collapsing to the ground. A dull ache flooded my mind, while Xerxes and the rest of the r'ka got a bigger dose, but finally - finally, once and for all, irrevocably -

She was dead.

We backed up, weapons hanging limply at our sides, absolutely surrounded by massacred bodies burning in the rain, sizzling and smoking the ground more and more by the second. We looked at each other again, our chests heaving, finally able to say the words we'd wanted to hear what felt like years ago, but only began several hours ago.

"It's over?" I pleaded.

"Yeah," He said, nodding slowly, "It's over."

That was all I needed to hear, and the boiling electricity in my veins seemed to disappear into thin air, my skin clearing up with it. The world seemed to get a whole lot less loud - calm even, maybe a bit too calm. "X…" I breathed, grabbing his arm in an attempt to stay up, "I think I'm going to…"

I heard him drop the sword and grab my exhausted, falling body, pulling me close to him.

"I've got you, Alex.

"I've got you."

I held him close as I limped through the carnage, the pain starting to set in now that it was over. I saw the humans executing any remaining r'ka, many still under the duress of a dying queen. The official destruction of our hive, where we lived, said and done as our heads throbbed, and I realized just how scared I was that I have no idea what we'll do now.

I turned my head around slowly, adjusting my grip as I failed to see any of the Yautja, having disappeared after Kaia's termination, but likely still watching us. Alex would likely be upset, but I'm sure that wasn't the last we saw of them. Dante ran up to us, bleeding from his side, but ultimately fine.

"Are you two okay?" He asked, and I looked down at Alex's unconscious body in my arms, picking the loaded question apart.

It felt impossible to grasp, that this pain would dissipate with time, that eventually wounds would heal and that we may even forget and purge the horrors we witnessed today from our minds.

It felt impossible that tomorrow is possible now.

Maybe that's wishful thinking. Something tells me this day will stick to us for the rest of our lives, no matter how hard we try and shake it, haunted by the things we went through, the things we did, the ghosts of the past we saw…

Maybe tomorrow, maybe the pain of all those we killed today would hurt more, or maybe it would hurt less, but for now-

"We'll be fine, I think." I already knew what he was about to say next.

"You can still come with us, both of you. It'll be hard, but we'll be fine, we'll be better."

He was begging us, it was in his voice. And though it hurt to see a familiar face go, though it pained me to abandon those few I knew now, I already had my answer - he was in my arms.

"He's meant for the humans, and I'm meant for him."

"Are you sure?"

I scoffed. "Absolutely not, but I… I don't know if I want to go back to how things were, different or not. I need this, and he needs me."

He grabbed my shoulder gently - the one caught on the truck earlier - examining it briefly before making a bandage, wrapping up the appendage carefully. He couldn't take his hand away from it.

"I hope we'll see each other again someday, brother."

I grabbed his shoulder, letting our heads touch in goodbye.

"I do too, Dante."

We held our heads like that for a moment more, before he hesitantly let go, starting off with the remaining survivors into the woods. Everyone was dead, Kaia was dead - they'll make it, wherever they go. But still, when the last one left my sight behind the brush, I still felt that pang deep in my chest.

Now, it's just us. Just me, and him.

"Alex!" I heard from behind, turning to see one of the more defined humans running at us. I recognized him as the one helping Alex moments earlier, before his subsequent… rage. He held a much smaller firearm than before, and he looked like he wanted to hesitantly aim it at me, like I planned on killing the sleeping human after everything.

"Jesus Christ, set him down!" He yelled, not in a way that declared hostility, but worry. I suppose that was fair, he hadn't seen the things I saw today. Worry was just in the back of my mind by this point - no matter what happened to him, no matter the odds, he could survive, and I knew he would survive even now.

I pointed at the vans and limped past him, the final gunshots ending as everyone rallied back up. None of them died, it appeared - good for them.

They all looked at me warily, unsure whether to shoot me or help me, and when none of them opened the back doors, I did it myself, setting himself and I down on the seats closest to the back. I held his body close to me, watching them all argue about my presence before the man from earlier, whose name was Rob I heard yelled out, came in.

"Shut the hell up and get us out of here, Kessler. That goes for the rest of you as well, get in, now!"

They did, loading up Cassandra with us as well, whom I forgot about until now - she was still unconscious. Everyone had a dangerous look of paranoia towards me. At least they finally shut the doors, the darkened interior much kinder on the eyes.

"Never seen one with eyes," I heard one whisper to another, quiet to only the two of them on the other side and myself, to their benefit. Maybe Rob, too, if the look he cast at them said anything as he neared us.

He took off Alex's mask as the van turned over and started off, rumbling away from the battlefield we created. I casted a final look out the back window, watching the rain fight the unfortunate battle against the fire, both in the yard and collapsing the remainder of the house. The two cars still sat there, showing scars of misuse and melting. Behind that, surrounded by the gentle glow of the fires, laid Kaia on her side, bleeding, burning, and dead at last.

We'll be fine.

Yes, I know, it's been a year since I updated this.

No, I don't have a good reason for that.

Yes, there will be another chapter, most likely the final one.

And yes, I will finally write the scene you all came here for that I basically clickbaited everyone into thinking this would have by now - I mean the smut.

I refuse to make any promises about when the next chapter will be out, 'cause last time I did that, it took nearly thirteen months. So maybe I'll just suffice with, 'it's coming when it's done.'

Because you'll be fine until then, too.